This invention generally relates to cutting tools and is specifically concerned with a tool holder that improves chip breaking during cutting operations.
During metal cutting operations, continuous metal shavings are usually produced. These shavings are commonly referred to as chips. Chips can build up, cause deterioration in the finished surface of a work piece, and thus create a quality assurance problem. Build up chips can form a mass that may rotate with the work piece and thus pose problems relating to operational safety. Moreover, chips can cause unpredictable jams in a cutting process, which requires manual disposal of the chips. This ultimately interferes with the automated cutting operations.
To this end, it is strongly desirable to have the chips generated in discontinuous forms. Chip breakers have been devised for breaking chips into small pieces. One type of chip breaker includes a combination of grooves and obstacles formed on the rake face of the cutting insert. During cutting operations, the grooves and obstacles function to bend the chip after it has been produced. Often, the grooves and obstacles fail to break the chips.
There is a need for a tool holder that improves chip breaking. Ideally, the tool holder would control dispersion of the chips and thus, promote safety, quality assurance, and the automated cutting operations.
Generally speaking, the invention is directed towards a tool holder that is adapted to break chips during a cutting operation. The tool holder comprises a shank and a head. The shank is adapted to be received by a cutting machine. A head is provided with a pocket for receiving a cutting insert. The head has a flank surface. A chip breaker is provided on the flank surface adjacent the pocket. A clamp is provided for retaining the cutting insert in the pocket.
The invention is also directed to a method for breaking chips comprising the steps of providing a chip breaker on the head of a tool holder adjacent a cutting insert and directing a chip into the chip breaker.